


Twenty-One is a Magic Number

by ThroughtheMirrorDarkly



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Romance, Self-Doubt, Yuffitine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-15 23:56:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15424482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThroughtheMirrorDarkly/pseuds/ThroughtheMirrorDarkly
Summary: Vincent Valentine realized that Yuffie isn't going to wait for him for forever, and he has to decide on what to do with his feelings.





	Twenty-One is a Magic Number

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Final Fantasy VII. This is to challenge myself as a writer, and hopefully you will enjoy it.  
> Summary: Vincent Valentine realizes that Yuffie isn’t a child anymore, and that she wouldn’t wait on him forever.  
> Pairing: Yuffie Kisaragi/Vincent Valentine, minor Reno/Tifa  
> Prompt: “Twenty-One”. Write about your 21st birthday. (My 21st birthday wasn’t interesting, so I decided to write for one of my favorite pairings instead.)

* * *

Twenty-One Candles 

by ThroughtheMirrorDarkly

Vincent Valentine was not good at expressing his emotions, even before he had been experimented on and everything that followed. He had a great many demons that haunted him, some more real than others. So even as he established friendships with the mismatched group of AVALANCHE and helped them save the world, he still kept everyone at arms’ length. And none had he kept more at arms’ length than the self-proclaimed Single White Rose of Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi. 

She had been a bratty seventeen year old thief with an obsession with material of all kinds, and had tagged along with AVALANCHE on a mad quest to save the world. (Probably because she was too stubborn to take no for answers.) She was uncouth, loud mouth, unladylike. She was clever, spirited, with a heart of gold underneath her feistiness that she wore as an armor. 

He avoided her because she was bright and pure. Everything that shouldn’t be near a monster like him, but that hadn’t mattered to her. She sought him out, putting herself in his way and annoying him to the ends of the earth and endlessly testing his patience. But a small part of him, a reluctant part of him admired her for treating him like a person when everyone else treated him with a certain stigma, always wary of the monsters simmering below the surface. 

But not Yuffie. She was fearless. 

It seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, that now a twenty-one year old woman stood where the young teenager had once stood. He’d be lying if he hadn’t been aware of the change in her. How the last traces of baby fat had faded from her face, highlighting her swept cheekbones and the curves of her jaw down to her pointed chin. Her large doe eyes were still filled with mischief and life, but there was more awareness—more caution and care for herself and everyone around her. The way her body curved beneath her clothes, supple and soft. 

He felt wrong for noticing the changes, for coming to appreciate her as a woman in her own right. It had been easier when she was younger and when her crush was superficial. A child that didn’t know what she wanted and feelings that were fleeting, that would fade given enough time. She would grow and find someone more suitable, better for her than him. 

And the crush did fade. 

He just never expected something more real and deeper to take its place. She had grown past the need for idols and no longer put him on a pedestal and started to see him as a man. She was perceptive and refused to let him refer himself as a monster. When he tried to shut him off from the rest of the world, she would always drag him back. She wormed her way into his confidence and his life, a force of nature he couldn’t stop even if he tried. 

She stirred and awoke something in him that he had thought long dead. She was proof that he still had a heart, and she didn’t even notice. She brought light into the dark abyss of the nightmares and tragedies that surrounded his life. Her absence in his life was something he was always aware of, and when Yuffie entered a room his garnet eyes were drawn to her. Like they were right now, he watched her where she stood amongst the rest of her friends as Cloud cut the cake, passing out pieces to the kids and everyone. 

Vincent sat back away from the throng of people, like always. It had crept upon so exclusive and silently that he almost missed it. But the damage had been done, hadn’t it? After his persistent efforts to push her away, Yuffie had started to distance herself from him and Vincent had never been more aware now watching her from afar, how much he had fallen in love with her. 

He had never imagined that his heart had room to love again after the tragic memory Lucretia had planted in his soul, but somehow, somewhere Yuffie had come in healing those wounds without his notice. He didn’t understand how she managed to do it and couldn’t place when it had happened, but now with clarity that the recent months had given him. 

He found his empty bottle of beer, replaced with a fresh one. His eyes flickered up to Tifa’s solemn expression and then he bowed his head, almost like he was ashamed. 

“You should go to her, you know,” Tifa counseled him, gently. Her dark eyes flickered towards Tuffie who slapped Reno’s hands away from her plate and made gestures that clearly meant she was threatening him with bodily harm. “Let her know how you feel.” 

Vincent let out a deep sigh. “Tifa, I’m—” 

“Not good enough?” Tifa guessed, with an eyebrow arched. When he didn’t answer, she sat down on the couch beside of him and folded her arms over her chest. “Look, Yuffie cares for you deeply and those feelings have endured for a while even when you’ve been deliberately cold to her, but she won’t wait forever.” Her dark eyes looked at him beseechingly and there was genuine concern written on her expression. “I had to accept that while I loved Cloud, I shouldn’t have to live life accepting any scrap or affection he would occasionally give me. I know he didn’t do intentionally or to hurt me, knowing he was lost in himself sometimes, but it wore on my heart over time. I shouldn’t have to feel like I was practically begging him to love me, and I got tired of waiting on a maybe. That was no way to live.” 

“So you are saying Yuffie is getting tired of writing on a maybe?” Vincent asked, feeling his chest tightened at the thought. 

“I’m just saying she isn’t going to wait forever,” Tifa replied, softly. “I never expected to stop loving Cloud, or that I would fall in love with Reno of all people. It wasn’t something I imagined and there are times that Reno is a complete idiot, but he’s my idiot. Yuffie only has eyes for you now, but that doesn’t meant that she isn’t capable of moving on and finding love somewhere else. And all you will have then is your regrets. Do you want Yuffie to be another regret?” 

* * *

Vincent had gone up to the rooftops for air and time to think where it was quiet. He should have known his solitude wouldn’t last, but he couldn’t be angry with the intruder. It was the woman who had been on his mind. He turned towards Yuffie who had been ready to sneak up on him, and in an effort to hide her failing sneak attack, she made of a show of showing him her new daggers. “So, what do you think?” Yuffie grinned, broadly brandishing the new set of daggers that Rude had gifted. She twirled them in a very dramatic and stylish fashion. 

The corners of his mouth curled upward in the tiniest of smiles. “Looks like you’re ready to be up to not good,” he told her, with a hint of humor in his voice. 

“Oh, you have no idea.” Yuffie slid the daggers into the hostlers at her waist, and walked over to him with a skip in her step. “I can hardly wait till we can go training again. I’ve missed training with you.” 

Vincent felt a twinge of guilt hit him. Her words just reminded of how he had been avoiding her, pushing her away. It reminded him that his actions had hurt her, even if she tried to hide it and he hated himself for that. 

“Hey, is something wrong?” 

He shook his head. “I’m fine.” 

“Well, you can tell me, you know,” she told him, brightly. “You always listen to me, when I ramble about materia or rant about my father and his stupid misogynistic ways, I mean I don’t want to get married to—” Yuffie cut herself off, realizing she was about to go into a violent tirade against her father again. She scratched the back of her neck embarrassed, and cleared her throat. “So it’s only fair that I lend an ear to you on occasion.” 

“Only on occasion?” He arched a dark charcoal brow at her. 

“I would listen on any occasion, but you aren’t a complainer. You are a brooder, mister,” she told him, poking his chest with a finger before she swept away from him. She leaned forward, propping her elbows on the railing and looking up at the sunny sky. “Sometimes, you brood so much that I could just hit you, you know?” 

“Oh, really?” 

“Because you’re a wonderful person and you can’t see it because you made some mistakes. You look at yourself and you’ve only seen where you failed, but never see where you have done so much good. And maybe…maybe you are one of the people who decide they have to lead the hardest, most dangerous life possible no matter. And that’s frustrating!” Yuffie commented, her voice very quiet and soft. There was an uncharacteristic sorrow that settled upon her face. “You don’t deserve to live your life alone. You deserve to live with it people who love you. You aren’t a monster, no matter how much you tell yourself you are.” 

“Yuffie, I—” 

“No, Vincent,” Yuffie snapped, whirling around. Her eyes blazed with determination, and defiance and she had never looked so beautiful to him. “I don’t care how much you put yourself down—you aren’t a monster. We all come with baggage, good and bad, but that shouldn’t define us. We should be defined for how we lived our lives, but also by how we loved. Why are you so determined to live yourself alone and convince yourself that you are so unlovable?” 

“You’re mad at me,” Vincent commented, softly. He couldn’t fight her words for there was much truth in them. If anyone could cut away at his defenses and leave him vulnerable, it was the woman before him now that held more power over him than she knew. 

“Yes, I am,” she told him, bluntly. “You got a good heart, and you do what you think is right no matter how much it hurts and costs you. That isn’t a monster. That is a good man, and you deserve to be treated as such.” 

His breaths were harsh, like he was swallowing water and drowning. His cape billowed around him as a harsh wind cut across the rooftops, and his red eyes stared at Yuffie with a well of sorrow in them. “Yuffie, I…I don’t know if I know how to be a man anymore. I spent so much time in isolation and it affected me, even after all these years and everyone trying to be helpful. I don’t know what I could offer anyone, but after everything you’ve done for me—” 

Her dark eyes rounded, startled. “Done for you? What have I done for you?” 

“More than you have realized. You…you saved my life, you dragged me up and made me walk and pulled me out of my shell when I was determined to drown in my past, that’s more than just a friend. I can’t find a word to describe what I feel for you,” Vincent stated, a heat curling up the column of his throat. He had never felt more like an awkward school boy than he did right now. He was older than her, so out of practice when it came to the affairs of the heart. “Love just doesn’t seem good enough to describe what you make me feel. It’s too small, too weak to describe your importance to me.” 

Yuffie stared at him for several moments, and then a soft smile broke out along her face. A small, tiny laugh escaped her and then she started laughing so hard that tears were coming out of the sides of her eyes. 

Definitely not the reaction that he had been hoping for. “Yuffie, are you okay?” 

She lunged at him, too quick for him to dodge and wrapped her arms around his neck. Standing up as far as her tip toes would allow, Yuffie pressed her lips to his and stole a kiss, taking his breath along with it. His eyes widened, stunned by the touch. The sneaky ninja pulled back before he could react with a lopsided smile on her lips. “You know for someone so smart, you can be surprisingly stupid,” she chuckled, mirth shining in her eyes. “I wouldn’t have put up with the cold shoulder you give me when you start to feel vulnerable, if I didn’t know you loved me.” 

“You knew?” He asked, incredulously. 

“I notice a lot more than people give me credit for,” she winked at him, doing a slight twirl before lacing her fingers through his. “It’s what makes me a good ninja.” 

“Hn. A cheeky ninja at that.” 

“And you wouldn’t have me any other way.” 

“No, I wouldn’t. You are perfect just the way you are.” 

Yuffie got a gleam in her eyes. “You know what would make this birthday perfect?” 

“What’s that?” 

“More kisses.” 

“I supposed that could be arranged.” 

“Shut up and kiss me like you mean it, Vinnie.” 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> END OF PROMPT!  
> I’m not entirely satisfied with this one, but I like it well enough. Hope you all enjoyed. (Yuffie and Vincent’s conversation was inspired in part by General Hospital couple called Liason (Elizabeth and Jason) from an episode back in 1999, and other bits of that episode too.  
> Comment, leave some feedback and push the kudos button!


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